Come, fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring
Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way to flutter
and the Bird is on the wing.
Omar Khayyam Tubaiyat Stanza 7

The Tree of Life is a symbol set which is a map of the function of the human brain. In the Tree of Life picture (click here to see a drawing of the Tree of Life), each circle represents a specific brain circuit. Each was given an ancient name which contained some meaning both obvious and hidden (or secret). The Tree of Life was named from the top down so that the first sephirah (the top circle) was named "Kether" meaning "crown." Each sephirah, represented by a circle in figure one, was given names and numbers accordingly. Each will be dealt with in detail in the future. It is important now to gain an overall picture of the symbolism of the Tree of Life.

Thus, the seventh sephirah, Netzach is the symbolic representative of the human brain's fourth circuit, the Sexual brain circuit, and Hod the eighth sephirah contains the description of the Rational mind, the brain's third circuit.

Each sephirah, brain circuit and their correlation will be gone over in detail later. For now, we'll take a general overview and summary of the correlation. We shall begin with brain circuit 1 and work up.

MALKUTH (BIOSURVIVAL CIRCUIT).
This is an unconscious brain circuit which controls "fight or flight" survival habits. The Biosurvival circuit is the only portion of the human brain functioning at birth. The most basic portion of the human brain is also the most primitive and even lacks the ability to recognize time. People in life and death situations often speak of how "everything slowed down," or, "everything seemed to stand still." Such an effect is often felt when this lower brain circuit takes over. It is concerned with your survival and not much else. This acts unconsciously. Tree of life 10; Brain circuit 1.

YESOD (TERRITORIAL/EGO CIRCUIT)
This brain circuit believes it is the whole brain. When this circuit takes over, even survival can take a back seat. This brain comes to life as a toddler. When we first stand up and begin to explore (find our territory) this is the brain circuit that is directing that territorial discovery. Our place in the pecking order (top dog or bottom dog) is imprinted into these brain cells. This circuit is subconscious. Tree of Life 9; Brain circuit 2.

HOD (RATIONAL CIRCUIT)
This, the first conscious brain circuit begins to function at about age three or four when the child starts to want to know what and why. You know it has begun to function when the child begins to "name" everything, and ask all in the vicinity "what's that?", or "why?", "how come?" This is the scientific circuit, the set of brain cells responsible for categorizing and nomenclature. This circuit is in the control of the operator and is called conscious. Tree of Life 8; Brain circuit 3.

NETZACH (SEXUAL CIRCUIT)
Opening up at about age eight, this circuit is fully open at puberty. In these brain cells we imprint our sexual needs, our parenting abilities, and our cultural bias. Being a right brain circuit, artistry flowers from the sexual circuit. The fourth brain circuit is not usually in full control of the operator and as such is a super-conscious circuit until the operator is trained in its conscious use.Tree of Life 7; Brain circuit 4.

TIPHARETH (BLISS/NEUROSOMATIC CIRCUIT)
The fifth brain circuit has a superconscious function and is sometimes opened by religious fervor, always by Tantric yoga, intense pattern focus, and sometimes through meditational methods. To reach Tiphareth one must cross the Gulf of Akasha which simply is symbolic of the difficulty humans have in opening their higher powers. The reward for making this effort is in the bliss this brain circuit puts out. The fifth brain circuit also acts neurosomatically or mind-over- matter in which you gain increased energy, peace, and somatic or body rest. Operating out of this circuit is like being three feet above the ground all the time. Tree of Life 6; Brain circuit 5.

GEBURRAH (BODY CONTROL CIRCUIT)
This superconscious or higher power brain circuit contains your DNA. memories. Jung said of it "from here come demons and beasts of the night." The Kaballah (Qabalah) calls it the "celestial surgeon" or "great destroyer." For all the no-nonsense, extremely practical aspects of this, the 6th brain circuit, it also gives self healing. When we learn to control our blood pressure, heart rate, tiredness, pain, hot or cold, etc., we are using this circuit. This higher power should only be approached with an experienced guide. Tree of Life 5; Brain circuit6.

CHESED (PURE IDEA CIRCUIT)
The seventh brain circuit sees all, knows all, and understands all. In this realm of pure idea or Cosmic connection, everything you see or learn about is correlated and holistically understood. When you access this brain circuit, everything suddenly makes complete sense but, it is very difficult to bring these superconscious ideas down to conscious levels. We are often left with nothing but a frustrating memory of a golden glow of rightness or a dream-like image of glory. Tree of Life 4; Brain circuit 7.

BINAH (ETERNAL SELF) Tree of Life 3; Brain circuit 8.
CHOKMAH (ETERNAL SELF) Tree of Life 2; Brain circuit 8.
These next two circuits will be addressed for now as though they were a single brain circuit as scientists believe at present. These represent our eighth brain circuit, a portion of our brain we can only access through out-of-body experience. This is the most peculiar of all of our brain circuits. Why should we have a portion of our brain that focuses out of our body so strongly that we must have our spirit leave our body to make us aware of these brain cells? It is because these eighth and ninth sephiroth represent the portion of our brain turned to our eternal self, that "piece of God" we all are. We all at some level know we are eternal beings and that our "self" will survive death in a spirit form. These are the brain cells which maintain that link and at death perform the transfer from physical to spiritual. The abyss represents the great difficulty people have in learning to become aware of this connection and in using this brain circuit to unite with their own eternal selves.

KETHER (GOD'S LIGHT/LOVE)
Kether represents the highest aspect of this estate or dimension otherwise called here the Tree of Life. As such, it is the Malkuth of the next estate, dimension, or Tree of Life we will experience in our eternal lives. As we have grown from "children of God" to the level we are now, which might be as a pre-adolescent young man or woman of God, we have gone through what the Bible calls estates and others call past lives on other planets or dimensions. It is normal to have past life memories since they are all held in memory by our eternal selves, our highest power which is in the presence of our heavenly parents. Thus, when we briefly touch our eternal self, we feel the presence of God since our eternal self is in the presence of God and even helped set up the system of learning for this dimension (estate, Tree of Life). Kether represents a set of brain cells receiving glory from the next dimension we have yet to experience. When we finish with this estate, we will move to the next by moving into Kether and our next eternal learning experience. Tree of Life 1; Brain circuit 8.




SUMMARY

That is a very brief survey of the brain circuits humans have and the way the Tree of Life represents them. Each brain circuit, its function, use, and control will be addressed at length later. For now, we see three major divisions in the brain we need to understand before going on. These are the subconscious circuits, the conscious circuits, and the superconscious circuits.

The subconscious circuits, 1st and 2nd (Malkuth and Yesod) are the most primitive brains we have and are the reptile and mammal brains respectively. To understand this it is important to know that as we evolved here on earth, when we needed more brain power, we didn't just grow a bigger brain, we added on. Think of it as originally a one-room house. We didn't expand the one room to a bigger one room, we added a new room. Each new room we added served a new purpose. Ultimately, evolution here in this dimension (earth) provided our eternal self with bodies they could send a piece of their spirit into and that piece of eternal being would return through the brain connections available (after experiencing the physical plane).

To return to the first and second circuits, these serve the important function or maintaining physical life even if the person does not want to learn with the two conscious circuits and knows little of the world around them and are truly bad parents. The first circuit keeps you alive and the second circuit brings you Ego, status, and territory. Food, shelter, and security are the goals of these two circuits. When damaged, no amount of food, shelter, or security will satisfy the drive of these powerful circuits and a person so driven will lack trust in anything and will believe they never have enough, or never are treated properly. With damage in these two circuits, everything is a threat to survival, Ego, and territory.

Most people have damaged first or second circuits (most damage is usually found in second) from childhood experiences. You can know if you have such damage if you have experienced being "made small" by someone who attacked you verbally or emotionally, or, if you feel like a child in some circumstances, usually during stress or when yelled at or when you make a mistake. You feel like a child because part of your brain was damaged as a child. Thus, each time something happens to remind you of whatever damaged your brain as a child, you get the same feeling you felt then and feel small, or childlike.

Another symptom of damage to the first and second circuits is the urge for more. More toys, more money, more friends, more of everything, when nothing is enough, you surely have damage to your subconscious circuits. People will go deeply into debt to get toys they cannot use because they must work three jobs to pay for those toys. Others live in poverty and hold large bank accounts (sometimes millions) they will not touch and keep adding to. Other people react to this damage by trying to make everyone their friend and doing anything to keep someone (anyone) a friend. Lower circuit damage also takes the form of refusal, with many people refusing to learn, refusing to become parents, lovers, workers, etc. In other words, sociopaths. A sociopath can have too many toys and work all the time or a sociopath can refuse to own anything and won't work at all.

The person who wants more toys only becomes a sociopath (1st and 2nd damage) when the toys become the focus. When they have a boat that's never used, a camper in the back yard, a computer used yearly and forgotten, surf boards used 10 years ago, sail boards used two times, hang glider used once out west, expensive camera with no film, etc., then, they are showing damage to the first or second circuits.

When the person living in poverty with a lot of money in the bank refuses to upgrade their life, they have damaged circuits. The person who is swayed by each friend they encounter, who always wants to do something to be a blessing to their friends, displays damage when this activity moves them from their own direction or path. When they visit a Baptist friend and come away moved from their belief into the Baptist faith, when they are swayed by each fad that comes along, believing it to be the "answer," when the job is more important than family, when friends, relatives, helping others, etc., becomes more important than the core of spouse and/or children, then, they have become sociopaths or worse, psychopaths, owing to damage of their first and second brain circuits.

Others display damaged first and second circuits in a refusal to participate. This non-functional aspect of damage may be even more common than the over- function already mentioned. Many people refuse schooling (third circuit) because the second circuit is too damaged to allow the third circuit to function. Others break all the rules of society, ultimately often becoming homeless, addicts, or hermits.

These people in mild form may be skeptics, putting down everything, nothing is perfect, nothing is good enough, yesterday is history, what are you going to do for me today? These people have few long-term friends and often move on to a new town with no one to say good-bye to. They gain friends fast but none measure up. They grab at each new path, religious or spiritual, or even causative, such as Greenpeace, but each fades into their imaged imperfection and they move on to the next "perfect" thing. They move from relationship to relationship and in each case, the potential spouse (or actual spouse) had a flaw and failed them.

Their search for perfection often leads them to God. Only in God do they trust (and that's a little shaky). These people pull God, the latest fad, the latest relationship, the latest friend, on you like a gun. When you talk to them and hit a "sensitive" subject they whip out God in a statement or fact refuting whatever they currently refuse to believe. Or, they refute you with "the course I just took," the book says," "Joe said...," and "it says in ____________." Fill in the blank with the Bible, college, some book currently all the rage, etc.

Another favorite of the damaged circuits is to refuse to permit. This means that these people judge...and judge harshly. If you don't think like them, you are wrong. They see things in guilt, blame, right, wrong. Such thoughts separate them and allow them to dehumanize the people around them. Thus, they often feel as though they are being harmed by those around them. This is quickly seen by looking at their job record. If they have held three or four jobs over the past three or four years and if they have been forced to quit each one in anger because of how they were treated, you can be sure of first and second circuit severe damage.

They will not have had luck with spouse relationships either. All spouses or potential spouses will have failed because of some inability in the candidates for the position. All have failed them in some way. Unless you are an extremely powerful personality, totally secure in your life and spiritual path, run, don't walk when this person shows up.

The reason they have had such a past history of everyone failing them in some way (even the good ones die) is because of severe damage and an ultimate refusal to change. They'll tell you anything and really be sincere, but, underneath is the hard core that will not change. You will hear of their past until you know it better than they do. You will not measure up to something or someone of their past. You will be flawed and they will tell you so. And they will not tolerate your flaws and will not change their flaws because of your flaws.

This is harsh to say, but if you are growing spiritually or have grown and wish to continue, you must not get trapped into such a sphere of damage because the person of such unfortunate damage will drag you down. They will not normally change except to tell you how bad you are now that they know you better. The more they know about you, the more they will find fault. If you are strong enough to live in this and not let it touch you, then and only then can they have a chance to grow out of their damage. However, I know of no one strong enough for this and the ones who are strong enough mentally will ultimately die relatively young because of such a diet of psychic harm. Stress kills!!!

Learning to recognize the damaged personality is difficult because we always want to believe in the good in others. We all have flaws which can be picked apart to "make a case" for whatever a hurtful person wishes to make. Thus, we must balance kindness with knowledge. We can understand without judging. We can love with our eyes open allowing the loved one their humanity. If they abuse and hurt, they are separating from you. If this continues, don't become a walking wounded; let go and stay sane. Don't allow damage to damage you. Drive your mental faculties sanely--don't crash just because someone you love is crashed. If they won't move up--DON'T MOVE DOWN! Stay on your path. Where you can, improve. Where you want to but haven't, don't shame yourself, keep trucking. Get out of harm's way and keep growing.

When people on the job are psychopaths, you must put up temporary, conscious walls which you take down when that person is not there. If you put up walls you cannot take down then Sam or Sue have damaged you. If you don't put up walls to their predatory hostility and need to hurt you, they will hurt you. People who want to hurt are always better at hurting than others are at not being hurt. They will have the patience of Job and will befriend you to find your weak spots, then attack you over and over until they "get" you. Then, damaged as you are, they are clearly superior, have won the contest, and tend to take no further interest in you except to tell you and everyone else how damaged you really are now that they've damaged you. When this happens, put up your walls and don't compete. Go back to your path, stay yourself, use the half-truths they are beating you with to grow and allow them to get bored with you and find a new target. You can't change them! Save yourself!